Two gift-wrapped goals came at just the right time for Plymouth Argyle and returned them to the top of League Two at the expense of their opponents, Doncaster Rovers. A 14-match unbeaten run had taken them seven points clear in mid-November before three unlikely defeats enabled Rovers and Carlisle to overhaul them. This 2-0 win at Home Park, coupled with Luton holding Carlisle to 1-1, restored the Pilgims’ supremacy and confidence at a critical time. Before Christmas they face Newport County away in a Cup replay whose winners go lucratively to Anfield.

Saturday’s managers were boyhood friends in Scotland. Derek Adams stayed there, bar a couple of games for Burnley, and came to Plymouth 18 months ago on the strength of unprecedented success for Ross County. In May, four seasons after they were saved from falling into the Conference on the final day, they lost in the play-off final to AFC Wimbledon.

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Darren Ferguson, also a midfielder, is more familiar and operated mainly in England, notably running Peterborough on a shuttle service between second and third tiers. Last season was his first at Doncaster, whom he took down to the fourth, where they had not been since 2004 coming the other way.

Seven seasons ago the clubs met in the Championship, Plymouth winning 2-1 at Home Park. They have known administration since, whereas Rovers’ darkest hours came at Belle Vue in the 1990s in the hands of the convicted arsonist, Ken Richardson. New Year’s Day marks the 10th anniversary of their first match at the Keepmoat.

Both clubs are looking up and they met on Saturday in buoyant mood and sweeping rain before 8,575, of whom 385 were away fans. That compares with 641 (130 away) for Plymouth’s final Checkatrade Trophy match at Swansea. Shaun Harvey, the EFL’s chief executive, remarked last week that “not being clear about what we were trying to achieve did not help the competition get off on the right foot”. Here, in a competition everyone understands, there were right feet from the outset. Both goalkeepers were tested inside the first minute, Rovers’ Marko Marosi stretching to a cross, Luke McCormick firmly down on Tommy Rowe’s shot, and the sharpness and pace were kept up to the interval.

By then Plymouth led. Marosi started what he thought was an attack through Niall Mason except that the left-back slipped and Graham Carey, darting in, punished the sweeper-keeper with his ninth league goal. It was not only the sweetness of the finish that made him a worthy man of the match, though the towering left centre-back Sonny Bradley and Oscar Threkeld outside him must have run him close as James Coppinger prompted testing attacks down the right in search of John Marquis in the centre.

If the first half was crisp as a carrot, the second was flabby as a fistful of spinach as all sense of purpose seemed to vanish in ill-considered passing. Argyle’s second came from a penalty beyond the hour, Andy Butler bringing down Ryan Donaldson and Jake Jervis converting, but the focused athletes of the first half had turned into mere stocking fillers, of which one, as advertised, was a mug. This turned out in human form to be Coppinger, ironically the one player still thinking clearly. In the 90th minute, from another penalty, Liam Mandeville was entrusted with maintaining Rovers’ record of scoring in every league game but his shot hit a post, McCormick “goaded” in Ferguson’s words and in the ensuing fracas the captain was sent off.

As Doncaster Beaux dropped their first points in five games, Ferguson felt flattered that Adams had changed his formation. With goals drying up, the local paper invited fans to name their preferred formation from 10. Favourite was 4-4-2. Adams was pleased his 4-3-3 was “hard to play through”. It looked more like 4-1-4-1 until injured strikers are fit. Louis Rooney, 20, was on the bench, where Rooneys tend to be nowadays, but the Pilgrims look set to sail again.

•Sam Barker, writing in Plymouth’s programme, remarks that James Coppinger is one of only five players in the top four tiers of English football to have made more than 500 appearances for their current clubs. The others are John Terry (Chelsea) 716, Dean Lewington (MK Dons) 623, Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 528 and Leon Britton (Swansea City) 512, with Coppinger on 513 for Doncaster. Numbers are thanks to Soccerbase.

•There is something curious about clubs reappointing managers who have failed them before when there are so many alternatives out of work, admittedly presumably for the same reasons. Maybe it becomes less difficult the second time round. On Saturday Rotherham United, who have had Ronnie Moore twice, which is one fewer time than Tranmere Rovers have had him, beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0, under Ian Holloway appointed for a second stint a month ago. In March 2005, in the equivalent match also in the Championship, QPR won 1-0 and Rotherham were shortly relegated.

•At last MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon have met in the league, the match in Milton Keynes ending 1-0 to the home side. A penalty decided it, after Dean Lewington (as above) was brought down, adding to AFC’s distress. He made 92 appearances for the original Wimbledon. For cup meetings in Milton Keynes between the two new clubs AFC fans have been torn by wanting to support their team without pouring money into the “upstart franchise”. On Saturday 2,000 bit their lips in a crowd of 11,185. Maybe if Lewington ever stops playing for the Milton Keynes side – and he is still only 32 with a loyalty not in question – MK should doff their Dons.

•Why, in Sky Sports Football Yearbook, do AFC Wimbledon fall between Accrington Stanley and Arsenal while AFC Bournemouth fall between Bolton Wanderers and Bradford City?